An anthology like this has been a long time coming. For the last fifteen years, every place we come together, whether it was The World Stage, or someone’s party, a birthday gathering, a child’s naming ceremony, a funeral or a home-going, whether it was a cement corner or Fifth Street Dicks (Richard Fulton’s place) backed up by a jazz band, we have always brought words. …We all knew [this anthology] needed to happen, but we were busy living and loving, making babies and building careers. And, of course, we were writing. Yet, we knew a renaissance was happening in Los Angeles, akin to the Harlem Renaissance. But we were caught up in it, shaking, grinding our pencils down, downing endless cups of coffee at a table outside Fifth Street, trying to find the words to say it precisely the way our heart was beating the sounds out.

POETS IN THE ANTHOLOGY

mikael ahadou

riua akinshegun

kim benjamin

jennifer bowen

shonda buchanan

paul calderon

wanda coleman

kamau daÁood

michael datcher

jawanza dumisani

ruth forman

goldie the poet

peter j. harris

levan hawkins

reginahiggins

yuri hinson

jamal holmes

wendy james/tcheconsase

jason luckett

josslyn luckett

k. curtis lyle

a.c. lyons sr.

ymasumac maraÑÓn

keith antar mason

lynnmanning

jose mendivil

sequoia olivia mercier

rhonda lynn mitchell

merilene m. murphy

art nixon

v. kali nurigan

nancypadron

e. j. priestley

jerry quickley

ariel robello

s. pearl sharp

renee simms

romus simpson

raaki solomon

hannibaltabu

jervey tervalon

lynne thompson

imani tolliver

a.k. toney

debra a. varnado

pam ward

conney d. williams

angelo williams

jaha zainabu

"There are convergences — spatial, political, cultural and artistic — that define a people's spirit and leave an indelible mark on the world's psyche. To say that this anthology is important or a landmark moment is to state the obvious. The work in this anthology weaves a tight rope around power and proves that the particular is the universal, the historical is the eternal and the ancestral soul is the dance of art. With the delicacy of an old school album, the music here is all flame and these poets are all fire people. Surrender to the sweet burn."

- Chris Abani, author of The Virgin of Flames and GraceLand.

"These Shaman Poets continue to renew and resurrect the power of verse, the sacredness of truth, and the eternal dance of words on pages and stages, as poets do everywhere, in righting and re-writing the world. If there were ever a time for such courageous word weavers, it's now."

Shonda Buchanan is an award-winning author, professor, former magazine editor, and an Education Specialist for the U.S. Department of State.

Former Interim Chair and Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages at HAmpton University, Shonda Buchanan is the Fall 2017 Writer-in-Residence at William & Mary College.

She has taught poetry, fiction, narrative nonfiction, composition, magazine writing and edited, and research for the last 15 years. An award-winning poet and fiction author, her expertise includes Contemporary America, African American, and American Indian Literature, Comparative Literature, as well as Women's Literature and canonical texts.

Shonda is an Eloise Klein-Healy Scholarship recipient a Sundance Institute fellow, Jentel Residency fellow, and a PEN Center Emerging Voices fellow. She has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Community Foundation, and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

As a culture and literary arts ambassador and lecturer, Shonda has conducted workshops and presentations for the U.S. Government Accountability Organizaiton, the U.S. Embassay Kuala Lumpur, the Athens Institute for Education and Research in Athens, Greece, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, the Hampton Roads Writers Conference, the Poetry Society of Virginia and many others.

Literary Editor of Harriet Tubman Press, Shonda edits books by and about African American people, culture, and heritage. Shonda has lectured, participated on panels, and has taught workshops at numerous colleges and universities; and has presented at U.S. public libraries, organizaitons, bookstores, high schools, middle schools, and conferences.

Holding a B.A. and M.A. in English from Loyola Marymount University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Shonda's first collection of poetry, Who's Afraid of Black Indians?, explores the complexities of bi-raciality and the intersection between Blacks and Native Americans.